The Meghalaya High Court has directed the State government to identify and book those persons spreading false rumours in various social media platforms with regard to the efficacy of the Covid vaccines.
In an order passed today, the division bench of Chief Justice Biswanath Somadder and Justice Harmarsan Singh Thangkhiew appreciated the steps taken by the State Health Department on the vaccination issue.
“While we appreciate the steps taken by the Department of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of Meghalaya, we simply cannot allow the rumour-mongers to go scot-free. They can be easily apprehended by the Meghalaya Police (provided it has the will to do so), since all of them are invariably using various social media platforms, thereby leaving an electronic trail,” the High Court said.
The High Court also requested Advocate General Amit Kumar to take serious note of this matter and appraise the court specifically on the next date hearing slated for August 17 about the steps taken by the Meghalaya Police in this regard.
Earlier, during the hearing, a status report was filed on behalf of the Health Department detailing the various efforts to ramp up Covid vaccination and also ways and means to enlighten the people about the benefit of vaccination.
However, the High Court Upon stated that the status report did not reveal any step taken by Meghalaya Police in order to specifically identify and book those persons who are responsible for spreading false rumours using various social media platforms with regard to the efficacy of the vaccines, in order to create an element of fear psychosis in the society, “which is one of the primary reasons for vaccine hesitancy in the State”.
It may be mentioned that the High Court has recently directed the State government to deal with vaccine hesitancy among the residents of the state in an effective manner and on a priority basis.
In an order passed on June 23, the court had made it clear that it shall monitor this issue closely so that the State government is able to overcome the vaccine hesitancy at the earliest and all eligible persons in Meghalaya are vaccinated well within the timeframe as may be specified by the State.
